The use of a promotional bonus consisting of a predetermined quantity of value as a means of attracting players to participate in games of chance or skill is known and widely practised. In this specification, for convenience, the term “promotion credit” is used to denote a quantity of value provided to a player as an incentive, or bonus, to be used by that player in wagering activities. Such games of chance or skill are generally available at online casinos or online poker rooms and the like. In this specification, an embodiment of the system will be described with particular reference to its application in conjunction with an online casino and an online poker room. It is to be clearly understood, however, that the use of the invention is not limited to this particular application.
Promotion credit may arise in many ways, for example, as a result of a sign-on bonus in which a player is given a predetermined quantity of credit for registering as an authorised player at an online casino, or as a result of a purchase bonus in which the player is given the predetermined quantity of credit as a bonus when purchasing an amount of credit to be consumed during game play at the online casino. It is usual for this promotion credit given to the player to be a percentage of the amount of credit purchased by the player. The promotion credit is intended for use by the player to wager on games of chance or skill offered by the online casino. This type of credit is available to the player for immediate use for wagers and will be termed, for convenience, as a priori promotion credit.
A further way in which promotion credit can arise is as a result of a sign-on bonus in which a player who registers as an authorised player at an online poker room is promised a predetermined quantity of credit at a future time. This type of promotion credit is not made available to the player for immediate use, but only becomes available for use by the player for wagering purposes once certain conditions associated with the promotion credit have been met, as will be described below. This type of promotion credit will be referred to, for convenience, as a posteriori promotion credit.
Promotion credit can be problematic for entities that operate online casinos, sportsbooks and poker rooms.
If a player is able to unconditionally cash out, or redeem for monetary value, a priori promotion credit awarded to that player, then the operating entity will be left in a loss-making situation without deriving adequate economic benefit therefrom. This problem can be addressed by utilising a posteriori promotion credit, but this is unattractive to would-be players at online casinos and sportsbooks as such players have become accustomed to promotion credit that is available for immediate use.
For these reasons, a priori promotion credit is generally accompanied by restrictions. Firstly, a priori promotion credit is usually treated by online casino management as being “non-cashable”, meaning that it may not be cashed out, although it can be used to wager on any game of chance offered by the online casino. Further, the a priori promotion credit carries certain play through restrictions that must be met before the a priori promotion credit or any winnings arising from wagers made with the a priori promotion credit may be cashed out. Such play through restrictions are usually expressed as wager requirements for the promotion credit, namely how many times the promotion credit must be wagered in game play, after which any portion of the promotion credit that remains, and any winnings arising therefrom, may be cashed out. For example, a play through requirement of “5×”, or “five times”, means that the a priori promotion credit must be wagered five times before it can be cashed out, together with any winnings that have been generated therefrom. Thus, if the a priori promotion credit is, say, US$ 50, the player would have to wager US$ 250 in game play before the US$ 50 a priori promotion credit, or any portion of it that remains, can be cashed out, together with any winnings arising therefrom.
It is also known to exclude wagers on certain specific casino games from contributing to the players' play through requirements in respect of a priori promotion credit. These are typically games having a narrow casino profit margin and, particularly, games in which the casino profit margin, and thus the payout percentage of the game, is easily determinable from the game rules. Examples of such games are Blackjack, where the payout percentage of the game can be calculated as a function of the game rules and a number of decks of cards used in the game, and Video Poker using a standard deck of 52 playing cards, where the payout percentage can be derived from the game rules and the pay table. Payout percentages on such narrow profit margin games can be as high as 98%.
In order to allow wagers on narrow profit margin games to contribute to the play through requirements, it is not uncommon for online casino managements to set high play through thresholds, in some instances as high as 35×. Even with such high play through requirements, a player can utilise the a priori promotion credit to satisfy the play through requirements in the above example on a 98% payout game and, statistically, still be able to cash out and walk away with, for example:US$ 50*(0.98)**35=US$ 24.65,or over 49% of the a priori promotion credit, without having used any of the player's own funds, thus leaving the online casino in a loss-making situation. Such player conduct is referred to in the online casino industry as “bonus abuse”. A bonus abuser is a player who seeks to use only the a priori promotion credit to meet the play through requirements, without using the player's own funds, and to minimise attrition of the a priori promotion credit by playing narrow profit margin games, in order to cash out what remains of the a priori promotion credit once the play through requirements have been met.
A further difficulty related to a priori promotion credit arises in relation to management of cash-outs. The finance and accounting systems of online casinos often do not differentiate between promotion credit and credit that has actually been purchased by a player. The player is nominally allowed to cash out the full balance of the player's credit account. A cash-out transaction commences by debiting the player's credit account with an amount of credit that the player wishes to cash out. The cash-out transaction is then left pending for a period of time, typically between 24 and 48 hours, before being processed by the casino management. The cash-out transaction is then reviewed manually and checked against the player's game play records to see whether the player has met the play through requirement. If the play through requirement has been met, the cash-out transaction is completed and the player is paid. The cash-out process is time-consuming, laborious and prone to error.
If the play through requirement has not been met, the cash-out transaction is stopped and, as appropriate, reversed by re-crediting the player's credit account with the amount of credit the player wished to cash out. The casino management is then required to notify the player that the cash-out transaction could not be completed as the play through associated with the particular a priori promotion credit had not been satisfied. This particular aspect of the cash-out process is often vague and lacking in transparency. Overall, the process can result in a frustrating experience for both the player and the casino management.
As with a priori promotion credit, a posteriori promotion credit is often also subject to restrictions. In this case, a play-through restriction must be met by the player, using the player's own purchased credit, before the a posteriori promotion credit is awarded to the player. Once the play through requirement has been met, the a posteriori promotion credit awarded to the player is immediately cashable. A posteriori promotion credit is usually less problematic to administer than the a priori promotion credit described above. All that is required is for the online poker room management to monitor the player's game play and to credit the player's credit account with the predetermined quantity of a posteriori promotion credit once the play through requirement has been met. As the a posteriori promotion credit is immediately cashable once credited to the player's credit account in this manner, the cash out process is generally more transparent and simple.
It is also known for online casinos to offer authorised casino players an opportunity to play poker at an online poker room or, conversely, for casinos to offer authorised online poker players an opportunity to play games at an online casino. In such a case, a player will have a single credit account and will expect to be able to use any credit in the player's credit account at either the online casino or the online poker room, as desired. A priori promotion credit generally is not used in online poker rooms as a player awarded such a priori promotion credit may purposely lose the promotion credit to another player at the poker room with whom the player is in collusion. The colluding player is then able to redeem the a priori promotion credit so won. This type of promotion credit abuse is often referred to as “chip dumping”.
From the aforegoing discussion, it will be appreciated that, in general, a priori promotion credit can be used in instances where players wager on games in which a “house” acts as banker. Such games are termed “house edge services” and include, generally, games offered by, for example, online casinos, sportsbooks, bingo rooms and online multiplayer casinos. A posteriori promotion credit, on the other hand, is used in instances where players wager on games in which the house does not act as banker, but merely levies a transaction charge on the game. Such games are termed “peer-to-peer services” and include, for example, those found at online poker rooms and online betting exchanges.